Buildings are structures which develop your planets and moons. Each planet has a specific number of “Fields”, or spaces where buildings can be constructed; the larger the planet, the more fields it contains. Each level of each building occupies one field. A planet is “full” when there are no more empty fields on which to build. For an overview of what to build in the beginning, see the Quick Start Guide (tap the “i” button on the Menu Bar to open the Support Information screen).
Construction of a building uses some of your resources (metal, crystal, and deuterium). The cost of a building depends on its level and the base cost of the specific building – each level of a building increases in cost. Construction can only be started if your planet has enough resources to build it. You can add additional buildings to your “construction queue”, but only one building can be built at a time. The resources needed for each building are deducted from your planet’s reserves when construction starts. Construction times are reduced by building Robotics Factories and Nanite Factories.
In addition to the cost of buildings, some facilities also require the existence of other specific buildings and/or the researching of certain technologies. See The Game Interface > Main Menu > TechTree Screen for the requirements for certain buildings.
It is possible to cancel the production of a building before it is completed (tap “cancel” beside item in the construction queue). When it is canceled, the resources that had been subtracted from the planet are given back. This can be used as a method for saving resources in the event of an attack. It is possible to save a limited amount of resources from plunder by first starting a production of a building and then canceling it when the attack is over.
Completed buildings on a planet or moon can also be deconstructed, which frees up the space they had occupied. To destroy a building, tap the “i” info symbol on the building’s icon in the production screen, and select “destroy”.
To power your mines, you need power plants. When your Energy Output indicator at the top-right of the Menu Bar is in the red, it’s time to build more power facilities. There are three types of power production facilities: Solar Plants, Fusion Reactors, and Solar Satellites. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and deciding just what mix of them to build is a big part of the game’s strategy; your build method will evolve as your empire grows.
Solar Plants use no additional resources beyond their initial construction. Their output is not affected by the planet’s distance from the sun; a Solar Plant produces the same power in slot 1 as in slot 15 (it is Solar Satellites whose output depends on the slot). Initially, Solar Plants are cheap and can be built very quickly. Eventually, however, new Solar Plants become extremely expensive.
Fusion Reactors produce power by fusing deuterium, and require a continuous supply of deuterium to fuel them. In the beginning, they are not as efficient as Solar Plants. But as you continue to research higher levels of Energy Technology, their efficiency increases. The benefit of this grows exponentially when you have multiple planets. A single increase in Energy Tech research will increase the efficiency and power output of ALL your fusion reactors on ALL of your planets at once. At higher efficiency levels, Fusion Reactors produce much more power than Solar Plants, and some players eventually destroy their Solar Plants in favor of Fusion Reactors to free up fields for building other things.
(Note: Another source for power is the Solar Satellite, a stationary orbital spacecraft).
Mines are the basis of your entire economy. They produce Metal, Crystal and Deuterium, valuable resources that are used to build everything else, as well as research technologies. While this is often referred to as a space “war game”, you can’t sustain a war without a strong industrial base to produce spacecraft, weapons, and the technologies needed to build and improve them. If you lose a battle and your fleet is destroyed, you will be able to rebuild very quickly if you have good mine levels on multiple planets. If you don’t, you will probably get discouraged and quit. Building higher mine levels increases the mine’s production. As the mines drill deeper, more energy is required for maximum production.
In addition to mining for these resources, you can salvage metal and crystal from the wreckage of destroyed spacecraft. When ships are destroyed in combat, a percentage of their metal and crystal makeup is thrown into a “debris field” orbiting the planet where the battle occurred (the percentage of debris is determined by the current settings of the game universe). Harvesting a debris field is performed by a specialized spacecraft called a Recycler, and is therefore referred to as Recycling. Gathering debris by recycling can be very lucrative! Combat ships are expensive, requiring large amounts of metal and crystal to construct; when a large fleet (hundreds or even thousands of ships) is destroyed, the size of the debris field can easily be in the millions of units. Debris fields (and their size and composition) can be seen in the Galaxy Screen.
A Metal Mine is a building that mines metal ore and processes it into metal alloy of the highest quality. Metal is the primary resource used in the foundation of your empire. You can use the available metal to construct buildings, ships, defense systems, and research new technologies. As metal is the most abundant of all resources available, its value (relative to crystal or deuterium) is the lowest of all resources for trading. In the beginning, you will use far more metal than any other resource.
A Crystal Mine is a building that mines and processes raw crystals. Crystal is used in the production of electronic circuits, computers and communications systems, and in forming certain alloy compounds. Crystal mines are more expensive and consume more energy than metal mines, making crystal more valuable and somewhat less abundant in the universe. All buildings, and most ships and defenses, require crystal. It is also required to research many technologies.
The Deuterium Synthesizer is used to produce deuterium, a stable isotope of hydrogen with a natural abundance in the oceans of colonies. Deuterium Synthesizers are built in huge extracting platforms under the sea, and can separate the water from the deuterium using specially designed centrifuges.
Deuterium is used when carrying out sensor phalanx scans, viewing galaxies in the Galaxy screen, researching some technologies, and as fuel for spacecraft and fusion reactors.
Deuterium is more plentiful in colder environments. Due to the lack of solar radiation, the farther a planet is from the sun, the more abundant deuterium in its oceans will be. This means that deuterium synthesizers on cold, outer planets will produce deuterium more quickly and efficiently. Due to its relative scarcity and production costs, deuterium is the most valuable resource in the universe for trading purposes.
Storage structures provide huge storage containment for the resources produced by a planet’s mines. The three types of storage buildings are Metal Storage, Crystal Storage and Deuterium Tank. The higher the level of the storage facility, the more of that resource can be stored.
Initially, a new planet can store 10,000 units of metal, crystal, and deuterium. Once the storage capacity is used up, no more of that resource can be produced, regardless of the number of mines. To continue resource production, you will need to build another level of storage for that resource. A planet’s current storage capacity can be seen on the Resources screen by tapping any resource on the Menu Bar.
The Research Lab allows you to research new Technologies. Each level of the Research Lab allows faster researching times and (up to level 12) opens up research into additional new technologies.
Having research labs on multiple colonies does not allow multiple research projects to be conducted at the same time: you are limited to researching one new technology at a time throughout your entire empire. However, once a technology is researched, its benefits apply to all of your planets immediately. Put another way, the knowledge gained through research is shared by all the planets in your empire. With the Intergalactic Research Network, research labs on several planets may be joined together so that they can research new technologies much faster (but still limited to a single research project at a time).
Note: While a Research Lab is under construction, no research can be conducted. If a research project is underway, the research lab cannot be upgraded until the research project is complete.
The building cost of the research lab doubles with each new level, though costs for each technology researched will vary. The resources needed to fund a research project are deducted from the planet when the project is started. To see what Research Lab levels are required for a given research project, see The Game Interface > Main Menu > TechTree Screen.
Robotics Factories reduce the time taken to construct buildings (but not defensive structures or research times). Robotics Factories have less of an effect for higher level upgrades. For example, the first level of a Robotics Factory will cut building construction time in half, but the ninth level will only cut the time by 1/10 of what it was at the eighth level. If a building takes 1 hour to build before you build your robotics factory, it will take 30 minutes after the factory is built, but if a building takes 1 hour to build with a level 8 robotics factory, it will take 54 minutes to build after the level 9 factory upgrade is built. Therefore, it is rarely worthwhile to upgrade the Robotics Factory beyond level 10.
When your factory is upgraded to level 10, you will be able to build a Nanite Factory (assuming that you have researched Computer Technology level 10).
Many players prefer Nanite Factories because every level halves production time for buildings as well as for fleet and defense. However, Nanite Factories have a large base cost, so you will not be able to afford one until later in the game.
Hint: Some players choose to free up fields by partially or totally deconstructing robotics factories after building nanite factories to their desired level.
The Nanite Factory produces nano-sized robots, which are considered the ultimate achievement in robotic technology. These are capable of greatly increasing construction speed of buildings, defenses and ships. In game terms, nanites cut in half the construction time for all buildings, ships, and defense cumulatively for every level that is upgraded. Thus it is the only building which always takes the same time to upgrade (assuming you don’t change your robotics factory level above the level 10 prerequisite for nanite).
Particularly useful when building ships and defensive structures (because construction time for ships and defenses never increases), each level of the Nanite Factory cuts their build times in half compared to the previous level. For example: A ship that would take 1 hour to build would be decreased to 30 minutes with one level of nanite, 15 minutes with another nanite level, and only 7.5 minutes build time with a third nanite level. High nanite levels eventually result in the ability to “insta-build” ships and defenses (when their production time reaches zero seconds). The ability to instantly create large numbers of ships or defensive structures (if you have the resources to pay for them) provides a fantastic tactical advantage. Meanwhile, the cost of the Nanite Factory itself doubles with every level.
The advantage nanites provide when building mines remains constant. As the building time of a mine doubles every level, each level of nanite cuts construction time in half. Increasing nanite levels are thus essential to developing high mine levels.
The Shipyard is responsible for constructing all ships and defensive structures. Each level of shipyard opens up the ability to produce new ships and defenses, and increases their production speed (select a ship or defensive unit from the production screen to see its build requirements, or see The Game Interface > Main Menu > TechTree Screen for a complete list). Additionally, each level of Nanite Factory will cut the current production time of ships and defenses in half.
Regardless of the Shipyard level, only one defensive structure or ship can be constructed at a time. As with building construction, there is a build queue in the Shipyard that allows you to queue up building of defenses and ships. However, there are three VERY important differences:
In other words, once you place an order with the Shipyard for ships or defenses, it is permanent. No refunds allowed! And because there is no limit on the size of the Shipyard build queue, be very careful about the numbers you enter. You may accidentally build more than intended and there is no way to correct the error. When you are under attack, spending resources on the Shipyard build queue is one way to prevent them from being plundered.
A Missile Silo is a building that stores and launches missiles. A Level 2 Missile Silo is required to be able to build Anti-Ballistic Missiles and a Level 4 Missile Silo is needed to start building Interplanetary Missiles. Each level of the missile silo can hold 10 Anti-Ballistic Missiles or 5 Interplanetary Missiles (or any mix of the two).
The Terraformer is a building that increases the fields on your planet so that you can construct more buildings when your planet is full. For each level of Terraformer, your planet gets 5 additional fields, one of which is taken up by the Terraformer.
Hint: Terraformer levels require progressively more and more energy to build, largely produced by solar satellites. Since the energy requirements for high Terraformer levels approach those required to conduct Graviton Technology research, you can establish a synergy here: once you’ve managed to complete the Graviton Technology research, you can use the energy to build your Terraformer to level 9, resulting in 36 new empty fields for construction. Once you’ve built all the Terraformers you want, the excess energy required for their construction is no longer necessary. You can have an ally destroy the excess solar satellites and recycle the debris for other uses.
Once built, a Terraformer can never be deconstructed.
Moon Bases are structures similar to Terraformers, but constructed on a moon. Each Moon Base level completed creates three additional lunar fields, allowing for the building of other structures, such as Jump Gates and Sensor Phalanxes. Moon Bases must be constructed first to provide space for other lunar buildings, because new moons only have one available field. Building a Moon Base always requires an open field; if your moon is full and you want to add fields by building another base level, you will first need to destroy one other building to make a field available for a new Moon Base, which will in turn provide three new empty fields.
Once built, a Moon Base can never be deconstructed. (see also Fleets > Combat > Moons)
The Sensor Phalanx, constructed on a moon, is one of the most useful buildings in the game. Using the phalanx you can scan a planet and see fleets of spacecraft currently in flight to or from the planet, as well as the fleet’s composition of ships, time of arrival, and the type of mission they are conducting. This may allow you to send your fleet to intercept and destroy it (see Fleets > Combat).
Sensor Phalanx scans are stealthy; they are undetectable by the target player (unlike espionage probes). A player can only deduce that he has been phalanxed when he sees an inbound attack timed to arrive within seconds of his own fleet’s arrival.
Sensor Phalanxes are also useful to the attacker in another way. A person being attacked may try to destroy the attacker’s fleet by secretly moving a larger fleet to the target planet so that it arrives seconds before the attacking fleet. This is referred to as a “Ninja” because of its stealthy nature. The attacker normally has no way to know that a big fleet is inbound to the target to intercept his attack. A Sensor Phalanx scan of the target will reveal an inbound “ninja” fleet, and the attacker can then decide to recall the attack if necessary.
Note: Phalanxes cannot scan moons or debris fields. Therefore, you can hide your flying fleet by sending it from your moon instead of your planet. Ships flying from one moon to another, or from a moon to a debris field, are completely invisible to a Phalanx and can therefore not generally be intercepted (see Fleets > Fleetsaving). Also, a fleet sent on a Deploy mission and then recalled before it reaches its destination becomes invisible to a Phalanx for the rest of its mission.
What a Sensor Phalanx Can See When Scanning a Planet
* ALL Fleets heading to or from the scanned planet (except Recalled deployments)
* ALL Fleets currently orbiting on a Hold mission
What a Sensor Phalanx Cannot See When Scanning a Planet
This range is the number of Solar Systems that can be scanned in either direction from the moon where the Phalanx is located. A level 1 Phalanx can only scan planets in the same solar system. A level 2 Phalanx can scan planets 3 solar systems on either side of your Phalanx system. Each increase in Phalanx levels allows you to scan planets in solar systems farther away. The practical upward limit to the Sensor Phalanx is level 8. It takes 2.56 million metal and deuterium, 5.12 million crystal and can be built by a level 10 Robotics Factory in under 2 weeks (about 11 days). A level 8 Sensor Phalanx would allow you to scan 63 systems to either side as well as the home system, giving you 127 systems to scan.
To see the complete range chart, tap the “i” info symbol on the Sensor Phalanx icon in the game.
(See also Fleets > Combat; Fleets > Combat > Moons)
Jump Gates can only be built on Moons. A Jump Gate creates a wormhole between two distant locations in the universe, allowing instantaneous travel between them with no fuel required. Once you have more than one moon and a Jump Gate on each, you can transport your entire fleet (but no resources) instantly from one to the other. Constructing only a single jump gate has no benefit, since both a source and destination Jump Gate are required to operate.
With a Level 1 Jump Gate, there is a one-hour recharge time in between jumps, i.e. you could only send fleets once every hour. This cooldown / recharge time is only needed for the two jump gates that were used. This recharge time is decreased by half with each level of Jump Gate constructed. A level 2 Jump Gate will recharge in 30 minutes.
Jump Gates are especially useful for moving Deathstars (or “RIPs”). With a base speed of 100, RIPs would take hours to move between systems, let alone galaxies. A Jump Gate can also save on fuel costs; flying a big fleet over long distances requires large amounts of deuterium, while a Jump Gate uses no fuel at all. The only downside is that you cannot transfer resources through the gate.
Tap on the Jump Gate to see a list of ships and select the ones you want to send. Select your destination from the list of available Jump Gates. Tap send and your ships will instantly move to the destination moon.
Hint: Because you can’t take resources through the gate, make sure you have some deuterium on your destination moon or your fleet will be stuck there until the Jump Gate recharges, or you transport fuel there from somewhere else.